1. Field of the Invention
The specification relates to a navigation system for estimating journey routes for users. In particular, the specification relates to a navigation system for building probability models and estimating most likely routes for users based on the probability models.
2. Description of the Background Art
Users are increasingly relying on navigational systems on computing devices to provide useful information during travelling. When a user travels, the user is usually following in the footsteps of other travelers. These other travels, in aggregation, provide information that can be used to estimate likely journey routes and potential stopping points such as attractions, amenities, incidents, etc. By estimating journey routes of travelers, a navigation system can provide useful information, such as traffic delays or road closures, to the travelers. However, the existing navigation systems often need the travelers to input starting points and/or destinations of journeys before estimating journey routes of the travelers and providing useful traffic information to the travelers.
Another problem of the existing navigation systems is that they use traffic field studies to measure maneuver ratios at intersections by sitting at an intersection and counting the vehicles as they pass. Repeating this for several intersections enables the navigation systems to build models of how traffic flows for particular parts of town. However, this approach is very expensive, time-consuming and only captures a snapshot of the traffic flow. In particular, it is impossible to determine the origin and destination of each vehicle as they pass through the intersection, making a full model difficult.